Visual Production

Visual Production is what the audience sees when watching a film or series... Many factors come into visual production considering how visual stand for what the demographic sees so for example whether it is the main actor or the bird sat on the tree branch outside the window in the far back. 

Some of the contributing content is listed below...

Aesthetic; 

Objects or elements that are introduced into a scene to convey a message or mood to the demographic through visuals.

Space And Compositions;

The space between objects or characters in a scene. This helps create a atmosphere and really pull a scene together.

Acting;

A hired person used to create the illusion of the character portrayed in the film or series. Able to show the emotions the character is feeling during that moment in the universe.

Technical Aspect;

How the equipment is set up to capture the scene... Lighting comes into play here if you want to make it seem that its coming from a lamp in the background. It also includes camera set ups and choices of angles.

Editing;

Mainly used to edit clips together from scenes or to cut out unwanted footage to really capture the scenes message properly.

Narrative;

Representation;

Scene Analyse 

Scene 1; Nerve

Nerve was released in the United Kingdom during 2016, it is a thriller action starring Emma Roberts. It has been rated; IMDb 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 66% and Metacritic 58%. This movie is about the protagonist Vee, she is a sweet shy girl who needs money for college but her mum and her are barely getting by with the money they do have... One day a game called Nerve comes about and her friend Sydney is one of the players and encourages Vee to also join as a player instead of watcher. In the game you can either sign up as a viewer where you watch the players or you could be a player, a player is someone who is given dares to complete and if you do the dare you win money but if you refuse to do a dare you are disqualified from the game... Who will be the last one standing ? Vee signs up as a player and meets Ian through the game and they become close Tommy (Vee's friend) tells her to stop but she really needs the money.

In this scene Vee and Ian walk out towards each other from different sides of the arena, the crowd is chanting as the final dare is to shoot each other and the first to shoot wins. Ian doesn't want to hurt Vee because he's come to really care about her and tells Vee to shoot him in the shoulder to end the game, what has took a viscous turn. On the other side of the screen Tommy and Sydney stand in a bunker with a team of hackers who are friends with Tommy trying to take down Nerve and on the over side is a party with some of Vee's other friends watching the madness. It was time to shoot but Vee couldn't do it so she shoots at the floor this leaves the crowd disappointed and mad wanting to watch them complete the dare... Out from the crowd one of the participants scream over everyone saying that they will do it! This person was Ty a former Nerve player. Ty walks down towards Vee and Ian gun in  hand and hypes up the crowd... Vee tries to convince everyone that this is wrong and what they are doing isn't brave they don't have nerve's because they are all hiding behind a mask or a screen, she asks if they really want one of them to die and the crowd goes quiet until Ty chimes in. Vee offers herself to be shot by Ty making everyone vote on whether she should be shot, this really tests people or as they say societies morals in this part. While everyone is voting this makes it easier for Tommy and his friends to hack into the system, it then cuts back to Vee and that's when the results come in... Most voted , Yes. Ian tries to save Vee but Ty shoots her and once this is done the crowd goes silent. Tommy and his friends successfully hack the system and exposes everyone's identity's and sends this message to everyone's phones "You are an accessory to murder" music chimes in and everyone is given the chance to sign off. The crowd runs through the arena past Ian holding Vee's body in his arm's and then all was left was Ty who was still filming , Ian and Vee's body, Ian was about to shoot Ty when Vee stops him and tells him it was all her plan and Ty was apart of it. Ty leaves and signs of Nerve and it has officially been taken down. Tommy, Sydney and Vee's mum who has appeared celebrate as Ian and Vee stand in the arena alone and alive.

The aesthetics really help tie this all together, the arena making seem like a final stand off in front of a raging crowd with neon lights to make it come of like the purge and the guns to show just violent this game has became. Also the big items in the movie would have to be the phones they create the biggest effect just by how crucial they are... It shows that in society we can't do anything without our phones and it's mainly because we get to anonymous hence why they all wore masks to the live event.  At the start of the scene Vee and Ian begin at a distance from each other not getting to close while as the stands are crowded with people standing shoulder to shoulder to each other because of how many people came to watch. Later when the viewers are voting on whether to shoot Vee they cut off to people all around the city showing how big this game has gotten in only a couple of days... Ian closes the gap between them and tries to push Vee behind him but she wouldn't let him and when she was shot he would lay her on his lap holding her close as if to try and feel her warmth like she was still there. The crowd runs past like a herd sticking close to each other to hide their identities as Ty walks towards Vee and Ian closing the gap between them making sure she "wasn't alive", Ty helps Vee of the floor and apologizes to Ian and gives him a fist bump before signing off and leaving the two alone walking out the arena.  Through out the scene the main two mainly keep distance when in the arena but the crowd stays stuck together like glue to show the contrast on just how overpowered they are to Vee and Ian.

Acting was good in in the scene as a whole but I do think it could have been a bit better on portraying the message but at the end of it you understood. They main facial expressions and emotions these characters gave off was distressed/ sad and angry while as the crowd was excited anticipating the murder of Vee but once they got what they wanted they all went silent as if they where shocked. When in the bunker with Tommy and Sydney the scene where Vee's mother walks in and heads towards the screen you can clearly see where the actor who played Tommy accidentally knocked over a can and goes to pick it up but it has been edited to cut to the next scene. When Vee and Ian where pleading to the crowd and was protecting each other I do feel that it was portrayed well you could clearly see the emotions a person would have in a moment like that. Editing mainly consisted of cut away's and scenes being clearly removed and added to this moment for example the Tommy accident in the bunker I had mentioned earlier. The sped up view of the city when one of the hackers presses the button is very well done it gives the illusion like the audience is the message traveling to their phones. I really liked how they edited the letters on the screen and also the animations of the voting system... little things like that really tied the scene together more.

The technical aspect of the Nerve scene is rather good you can clearly see where the light sources are coming from with spotlights pointed down at them from the top of the arena and also the neon red lights, fire behind them giving a red/orange hint. While in the bunker its very lit from the hanging lights above that aren't that good and also the computer screens that are radiating around the room. The angles that are mainly used throughout the scene are; close ups, medium shots and extreme long shots to get the city view but also what I have noticed is that they are either filmed from a eye level angle or a slightly tilted angle to make it as if the viewer is a little bit smaller than the characters having to look up them.Despite the good use of music and edited dialogue for the speakers in the nerve game I noticed that there wasn't very good background noise for instance the fire that was behind Vee you couldn't hear it and also when the crowd was running past Vee's bod and Ian the footsteps where very muffled and not as what I would imagine a crowd of footsteps to sound like. Even though the filler/ background noise wasn't as noticeable as I would have liked the sound effects for the phones and music was really good and balanced so that you could hear everything going on at the time and at the volume you would expect it to be at if you where in that scene for real life. There wasn't any panning for the scene and it was just still sound but it stills works with what the demographic is watching.

In conclusion for the representation there was a lot of modern day social problems that you can see, such as the ideals with morals like what is right and wrong, how our phones and the internet are a big source of addiction and toxicity for people especially the younger generation who are easier to influence like the little girls who was watching on their Ipad in bed. Nerve really tackles the ideals of social media and ,modern day media but it does it in a way to make you question what you would do if you where there.

Scene 2; A Silent Voice

Silent Voice is an anime romance/drama movie that was released in 2016 but 2017 in the United Kingdom on Netflix. It was rated a 8.1 out of 10 on IMDb, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 9/10 on Animelist. The movie is about a young teenage girl Shouko who is deaf and communicates through the use of sign language, the main protagonist is Shoya bullies Shouko through elementary school but the tables are turned when the class turns against him making him grow up isolated from others. This leads our main two characters to the present day where they are in high school and meeting for the first time in a long time; Shoya and Shouko become friends and here we have the story of the two characters lives intertwine. 

In this scene Shoya goes to Shoukos apartment the night of the Sumidagawa firework festival, He enters the apartment calling out for Shouko but she couldn't hear him as he enters he looks at the side table where her camera laid next to her hearing aids (Shoya doesn't notice the hearing aids). He picks up the camera and goes on inspecting it when he notices the fireworks and while looking in the directions of the fireworks, there was Shouko standing on the balcony; about to jump off... Shoya rushes towards her calling out her name but as shown in the earlier scene her hearing aids are out so she doesn't notice that he is there. Knocking over the table he trips and yells out her name in a plea crying for her to not do it, Shoya was able to catch Shouko while slightly dangling over the edge himself trying with all his might to not let go of her. Shouko hangs there tears in her eyes as she looks at him desperately holding onto her; he begins to beg and plea with himself and a god that if he could be granted the strength he would change, change the fact he doesn't look nor speak to people and that he will become a better person! Shoya studies her face when he notices the scar he gave her all those years ago when he bullied her and ripped out her hearing aids, he reminisces on whether he ever apologized and repeating how sorry he was to put her through that this leads to him questioning whether he ever apologized to her and if Shouko even forgives him. Shouko grabs onto the edge of the balcony as he stills tries to pull her up and as if to lead the audience into the obvious he says that "I might like-" then it cuts off when Shoya falls off the balcony after saving Shouko. On the way down he has a flashback of his family one morning eating pancakes then to his friends, mum and lastly younger Shouko using sign language (Asking to be friends). He hits the lake hard just as one of the fireworks go off and it ends the scene of the sight of blood coming from his body and then flashing lights and the sound of sirens. This narrative leads the demographic to believe that Shoya has a chance to be saved just in time but stills leaves us on the edge of our seats.

The aesthetics of the scene really help to pull the narrative together by showing little details in the items that mean so much to the story. The faded in dark hallway as Shoya enters the apartment really sets of a gloomy tone, starting off the scene. The camera on the side is sort of like a representation of how shes just left everything behind as she planned her sad attempt of death, the camera was taken everywhere in the movie she would always document the fun times with her friends through that camera. Also the hearing aids that was left next to camera lets the audience know that Shouko wouldn't be able to hear Shoya as he begs her not to do it, The hearing aids hold such a tremendous effect on the movie since they have been the main item throughout the bullying when she was a kid to the new young girl she is in the current scene it is also shown that it is her disability that makes her get to this point. The fireworks symbolizes a Japanese tradition called the Sumidagawa what happens every last Saturday of July this tradition stems back from all the way of 1732 and is celebrated by the Sumidagawa river ,hence the name. This also links into the kimono that Shouko is wearing on the balcony, the kimono is a traditional outfit worn by Asian women more commonly during events but it was worn a lot more back a few decades ago. There is also a traditional outfit that is usually worn by men but its more common for girls to wear a Kimono then it is for men to wear a yukata. Further on in the scene during Shoya's inner monologue the background characters or just filler people all have these weird vibrating purplish/blue crosses on their face, this links in with Shoya's anxiety and AVPD (avoidant personality disorder) where he isn't able to socialize and interact like a normal human like others due to all the effect his childhood had on him so whenever we see him interact with others they normally have a cross on their face until becoming close to Shoya.

Spacing within the scene varies when it comes to what is being spaced  for instance the items that are scattered on the table and also the side by the door is also quite cluttered, it isn't a mess but it isn't really organized either. While as the people, at the start Shoya and Shouko are on other sides of the apartment to each other when Shoya notices and desperately attempts to close that space so that he can reach out to her to let Shouko know that he is there. So it goes from distanced to holding onto her and holding onto their friendship releasing all these emotions that Shoya had stuck within him. Although it is animated the facial expressions and "acting" during the scene really help push the message of desperation and fear for losing a loved one; it starts of quite neutral in the beginning as Shoya just enters and has no idea what is happening just yet but once noticing his facial expression instantly changes from neutral to shocked to fear... The way he has been animated to use his whole body when rushing towards her shows how desperate he is to reach her before it's to late, the tripping over the table and pushing himself up to catch her and then pretty much dangling of the balcony with her not caring for his own safety makes the demographic see how desperate he is to save Shouko and how scared he is of losing someone he loves. Shoya starts pleading with himself and you can tell with his grated teeth how hard he is trying not to let go of her when it comes to him falling of the ledge instead it becomes calm for a second when we have the firework and the splash of the water hit at the same time and you see his body just floating there not letting us see his facial expression.

Editing is hard for animation since really the only things you can edit is the sound or adjust the brightness of the scene since everything is drawn and not filmed. Despite this thought they have been able to successfully transition the beginning of the scene by fading into the light where Shoya opens the door, brightness is well contrasted throughout the scene where the light is made significantly brighter than the darker areas. Blurring was also used a lot during this scene especially when he was running to catch Shouko on the balcony and also the flashback plus inner monologue. We can also see lots of cutaways through the scene switching perspectives, this makes it more interesting for the audience. As is shown the scene is a animation but how it has been made is to seem like there is a camera following them of shorts where it keeps switching perspectives and also how the camera can move side to side and come off as a bit shaky when we are seeing things from Shoya's perspectives. The light source is also coming from the fireworks and the bright moonlight this is interesting because the animators are able to professionally produce a successful light source from not a object but a firework. The camera angles that are mainly used as well can be seen as medium close up, close up and medium shot but we also have the rare few appearances of extreme close ups where its zooms onto Shoyas eyes to portray to the audience the effect of what he is seeing is creating making it more dramatic for the viewer.

We start of the scene with hearing the sound of the door bell and then it cuts to Shoya's voice, what I've noticed while watching this scene that background noise is constant through out and is well made is its clear and well balanced with everything else that is going on. When Shoya is in the hallway looking at the camera you can hear the muffled bangs of the fireworks coming from the outside this is wear a piano sympathy starts to chime in and play and as Shoya gets closer to Shouko it gradually speeds up over time perfectly balanced with the background noise of him banging into the table and his cry for Shouko. As Shoya pushes himself of the floor and darts to Shouko you can hear the fireworks have got louder now since he's closer to the outside world, anther nice touch to detail s where when pushing himself up you can hear the sound of his shoes screeching on the floor. When Shouko jumps everything is silent there's no more noise not even the sound of the wind hitting the curtains, it was like we where Shouko experiencing what it's like to have no sound. The first sound we hear again is the sound of Shoya's heavy breathing and the sound of wind blowing through them the background noise chimes back in and then we start to hear Shoya's inner thoughts when music also starts to play again... the same music as when Shouko jumped. When Shouko is safe and shoya falls of instead the music once again gets louder as a muffled and sort of distorted voice talks over his flashback. Whats so good about this is you can also still hear the sound of muffled fireworks in the background to then have it match the sound of Shoya's body hitting the water the exact same time of a big bang from one of the fireworks. Meanwhile as the audience can hear the sound of water submerge him silent sirens come into hearing when the picture turns into flashing lights.

In-continuation of the scene it tackles many touchy subjects such as social problems; disability and mental illnesses; depression, suicide, AVPD, PTSD but it also correctly introduces Japanese culture to the viewer by showing off the Kimonos and one of the most beloved festivals ( Sumidagawa ). I like how the scene can light heartedly bring light to these problems without it being triggering towards people, it also makes people more aware of just how serious these problems are as well. It also shows how disabled people can struggle on a day to day basis... Disability sometimes can effect a person in more ways then one.